Extraction of the overturned drilling rig at the Main Street Bridge site in Peterborough began on Monday.
A tow truck, three CSR65 Rotators, and a CAT 329E excavator were strategically placed around the fallen 90-ton rig to incrementally upright it while providing a counterbalance, Assistant Town Administrator Seth Maclean said.
The setup had begun to lift the rig as of 11:30 a.m., Fire Chief Ed Walker said, and at the time, the process was going according to plan and workers hadn’t run into anything unexpected. “It’s, if you can imagine, a very slow process,” Walker said, but the crews expected to have the drill rig righted by the end of Monday, so traffic could resume on a single lane of Route 202 while crews continue to work on the rig on site in the coming days, he said.
Monday’s process was the fruit of several weeks of coordination between the Main Street Bridge project contractors, engineers, utility companies, Peterborough, and NH DOT, which began immediately after the accident, MacLean said. “Engineers began developing detailed plans to manage and properly distribute weight on Rt. 202 and to establish effective rigging positions and removal sequencing. Those plans were developed by engineers hired by the contractor, and then rigorously reviewed and approved by the project engineers,” he said.
The rig initially toppled on April 22 while working on the Route 202 portion of the construction site. Nobody was injured, and responders quickly contained a fuel leak.
The Main Street Bridge project team is scheduled to meet after the drill rig is successfully righted to determine whether there will be any project delays as a result, MacLean said. “As the Route 202 portion of the project is independent of the work being performed on the Main St. Bridge, we do not expect any significant delays with respect to the bridge, which is still slated to be opened toward the end of 2021,” he said. “ Total cost for removal is not fully known at this time,” he said, but the project’s contractor and sub-contractor are covering all costs related to the rig extraction.
MacLean was unable to provide an update on whether Route 202 would stay closed on Tuesday by press time Monday afternoon. Peterborough initially scheduled closures on May 17 and 18 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a detour set up along Route 101 and Route 137, with detour signs along the route.